Press
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9, Cincinnati Symphony
"Barely moving at the piano, he played [Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat major, K.271] with a refreshingly unaffected style, with nicely shaped phrasing and pristine articulation. The slow movement was a highlight, with its smiling-through-tears quality and the pianist's luminous touch in its long-breathed themes."
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Mendelssohn, Bargemusic
"This was big, bold music making, perfect for the incipient Romantic sensibilities of a composer who still seems to be underplayed even though his fame is universal. Mr. Hochman especially played the stuffing out of [Mendelssohn's D Major] sonata. His solo passagework in the hymnal section of the Adagio was positively inspiring."
The New York Sun
Lisa Batiashvili, Kennedy Center
"Pianist Benjamin Hochman was a powerful protagonist in Prokofiev's spiritual odyssey."
The Washington Post
Lisa Batiashvili, Vancouver Recital Society
"A white-heat performance."
The Vancouver Sun
"Such breathless perfection that time seemed to stand still."
The Kansas City Star
"A superb pianist. The glowing heart of the concert was a performance by Hochman and the Jerusalem Quartet of Schumann's Piano Quintet. The playing by these five typified the ideal of chamber music as a humane conversation about essential things."
The Globe and Mail
"Anton Webern's Variations for Piano Op. 27 were hypnotic in their sharp precision and reflected music as pure as crystal. In the breathtaking playing of Hochman the musical material was brought to abstract wholeness."
Ha'aretz
"Benjamin Hochman, making his PSO debut, displayed the sort of Mozartean touch and clean tone that you can't teach. The Israeli pianist played with attention to line, patience in phrasing (especially in cadenzas) and some of the best trills I have heard. One sublime passage in the first movement had Hochman echoing himself exquisitely, and he switched intuitively from melancholy to upbeat in that temperamental middle movement."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Festivals should be places of discovery. I heard my first recital by the young Israeli Benjamin Hochman, a pianist whose Beethoven and Brahms announced a maturity beyond his years.”
The Toronto Star
"It felt as if Hochman was revealing a secret about a piece so well known … now that's magic.”
The Day, Connecticut
"This pianist has an ability to make the piano sing… Hochman is so adept at the introspective style of late Brahms, that one just wants to weep."
Free Times
Ravel Piano Concerto
"After hearing Benjamin Hochman perform the Ravel, it should be obvious to anyone in the audience that all of us heard a world-class pianist.”
Opus Colorado
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
“Hochman's playing captured the beauty and power of Rachmaninoff's composition, and he provided both intensity and majesty as well as gracefulness and lyricism. At times his playing had a liquid quality; at other times, pure fire.”
Classical Voice of North Carolina
Mozart Concerto No. 9
Any Mozart provides an infallible test of an emerging pianist’s real musical prowess. Hochman’s interpretation is stylish and lucid, with patrician authority and touches of elegant wit where context allows.